I'm currently using busuu for vocabulary and http://www.russianforfree.com/ to learn the alphabet, although I think it also has some other useful resources. I believe this is probably more than enough for beginners and intermediate learners. Also check out this article from Benny the polyglot guy, he just did his first post about Russian, it covers several interesting aspects of the language:

http://www.fluentin3months.com/learn-russian/

Roosh, You need to have a sit down with this dude: http://www.linguesenzasforzo.org/m/artic...38398.html

There is a great app on iPhone (unfortunately I have found nothing similar on android) to learn Russian words hands free (while driving or walking): Accelastudy

Its spaced repetition function is also great, it will give you about 5 flashcards and repeat them until you indicate that you know the word, then it will add a new word in the mix.

Quote: (03-25-2014 11:22 AM)SpecialEd Wrote:  

I'm curious how the language situation plays out in Ukraine. Until the recent madness, Russian was the predominant language in Kiev as far as I know but that might change.

I'm curious about this as well.

Is Russian still the predominant language in Kiev or is it all of a sudden a taboo? Anyone on the ground able to comment?

So my progress is going pretty well and today my Russian teacher said (in Russian): "You're soaking up Russian like a sponge." She knows I watch Spongebob Squarepants in Russian so she added "...like Spongebob."

I've been in Moscow almost six months and haven't learned shit.

I feel like an ass.

Quote: (04-14-2013 10:08 PM)kbell Wrote:  

The link doesn't work. Would love to learn Spanish first though. Its more relevant since that's what a lot of people speak around here. I'm awful at languages though.

For everyone wanting to get the Princenton Russian course you can find it here: http://cytrussian.tuxfamily.org/

Go and down load each one by accesing this FTP site.

Ваш приветствуется Vash privetstvuyetsya
Your welcome!

Quote: (04-15-2013 05:16 PM)Mersault Wrote:  

I wrote of it when i first joined this forum. I have been around a little and there only two countries, cities in fact, where i can imagine living once i dilute the adventure bug within me. Besides London, my home, of course. And they are Buenos Aires and Moscow. Both are too far from the sea, and Moscow's winter is pretty lame, but the standard of women, well, i wouldn't be wrong and i would be right if i said they were fantastic. Not merely the way they look, although that is the most important, but i also speak of their mannerisms and all the other stuff that make up the whole. Actually, i prefer Buenos Aires a little, in terms of what it offers (Moscow has few tennis courts / English cinemas / shit food etc) but i like the Russian fevered mind mentality. Everybody is either a live for today gangster takes all or a live for yesterday nostalgia rules my being type. Besides the pragmatic boring types, nobody pays to much attention to tomorrow, beyond that which is absolutely necessary. ie. the milk is going bad.
It struck me as the Russian way.
Actually, it is probably all bullshit and i was hoping it was that way. It's probably just like everywhere else. Bunch of retarded fools who pine for tomorrow and binge themselves on false self deceptive hope and denying themselves the nutrients prevalent in portions of reality. Next year or the one that follows that.....and whatnot. Nobody knows anything guys. Just passing time. Drink whiskey. Bang some woman. Wander around the Tretyakov gallery and day game. Eh. Plus they have an obsessions with flowers and giving them to women. Oh they never understood Tarkovsky's Sacrifice. He was speaking to the nation but the nation was too busy getting drunk celebrating women's day. It's about letting the plants grow. Why prune it? Why prune?


Learning Russian > not learning Russian.

You wont be disappointed of Buenos Aires mate. Dont listen to all the rubbish media says as well as lot of parrots, Argentina is a good country and Buenos Aires Capitol is a lively city. And no one will mind you british or not (Falklands Malvinas might be an issue for our governments officials but people hardly thinks about it when meeting english men ]
I think Russian is ideal for day game in FSU and or tier 2 3 cities where the language of the vanquisher is strong enough and rivaling the local regional dialect.
And spanish is ideal for Argentina, all Latinamerica except Brazil and Spain, maybe Philippines and latino community in US, if you ever adventure into those lands.

Quote: (04-19-2013 01:36 PM)Mersault Wrote:  

The Russians who go to Turkey on holiday are the ones who didn't have enough time to organise a Schengen visa to Europe to go to Italy, Spain, France or Greece etc for the summer or who didn't have enough money to do a European vacation, so they do an all inclusive or half board trip to Turkey. Turkish visa restrictions are non existent. Sure, Russian women will bang the Turkish dudes in Turkey, but that isn't why they go there. The reasons are time (last minute bookings), visa issues or price (cheaper bookings). 95% of Russian chicks with an option between Europe or Turkey will choose Europe. Atilla, you're wrong.

And jimukr104. Read my post properly. Yes, dark features and light skinned are what Russians like. You are merely reiterating my point there, but, nevertheless, you're right. Ha. That was incidental. After all, dark featured, light skinned - that is what an Armenian looks like. Russian girls like that look.

Imagine two scenarios.

Scenario A.
If a dude who looks like that approaches a girl and says his name is Artak Harnoyan (typical Armenian type name) the girl will like him. She will have liked him from his look. She will have liked him even more when the hope that he was Armenian was confirmed. If he has a Russian sounding name like that, even better.

Scenario B.
Now, if a dude who looks like that approaches a girl and says his name is Joba Kobiashvili (typical Georgian type name) her initial high rating of him will have been diminished, even somewhat tarnished, by the fact he is Georgian. Yes, it is a shame. But yes, it is the way the Russian girl tends to think.

Now, will she still think the dude in scenario B better than looking than the Russian gopnik with his oversized trousers, pinched cheeks and strawberry picking haircut? Yes, she will. But Russians consider Georgians as 'eh'. Armenians, however, they consider as 'oh, really?' .

So even though the two dudes look similar, one of them is on the end of positive discrimination, the other on negative.

It's like my pal Sayed (Said actually, but i don't trust half of this forum to be able to get the point - for the other half, i included the correct English spelling. You decide which part you're on). He is Egyptian. He is good looking. He has adequate game. When he says his name is Massimo or Fabio, he gets 3x as much action. When he says his real name, well, he gets 3x less. Same dude. Same clothes. Same game. Same tendencies. Know what the difference is? The initial platform that he is working off. Some girls, when he pretends to be Italian, let him start from level 4 (easier to close). With others, when he is his Egyptian self, he begins from level 0 and so it is that much harder to pass each level succesfully.

So, yes. It makes a difference. And yes, Armenians, despite looking very similar to Georgians, are treated better. So jimukr104, i mentioned some silly stuff, indeed i did, but, none of the silly stuff i mentioned was that which you pulled me up on. Have a nice weekend.

Mersault, totally agree with you specially the last part about your pal Said and yes I got what you were trying to say.
In fact, if you think that southern italy, spain and france have had morocco, moor and arabic influence, you can be a Massimo from South Italy, good looking BUT you are egyptian and girls wont notice or wont care, if they found out later they may even like you more for your boldness and or adaptability.

Do you think latin guys, like south american guys are well considered and seen in Russia by local pussy?

Quote: (03-31-2014 05:56 PM)presidentcarter Wrote:  

I've been in Moscow almost six months and haven't learned shit.

I feel like an ass.

Dude, did you have any russian skills at all? I think it s all about having the disposition to learn languages quickly. I have been using English for business reasons for 10 years this July and never had any problem having people understanding me and viceversa. If I were to work in the US like some other user mentioned, I would have picked up the accent and the slang way faster, cant complain.
russian must be real tough to pick up.
One thing: if you have intimacy with a russian chick, chances are in bed you will learn a lot faster as is more intimate.

Additional update -- as I continue to plow through Pimsleur at a one-a-day rate, now on #36. I'm auditing, for free, a university course -- the first year third quarter. Six weeks of Pimsleur and some 1X1 conversation lessons has me feeling close to where these students are who've been studying for 6 months. The unversity class uses the "Golosa" textbook. By itself, this book would be a nightmare -- even the first few chapters are loaded with useless vocabulary which won't help you much in daily speaking. But with a tutor there are helpful role-playing exercises and grammar drills which are good to do with a native speaker in your one-on-one lessons. Assimil, the other grammar book I have, is very good and self-contained enough to the point where I can learn without another speaker, but contains less material I can use in my tutoring sessions.

At the moment, I'm thinking the best way for me to improve rapidly is with more one-on-one lessons, with English strictly banned...

I have to admit after recent trip to Lviv I am also thinking more about it. Just not sure if I would start with ukrainian language (putting all my eggs into Western Ukraine basket for future, but transition if necessary wouldn't be very hard) or Russian (and then eventually play my foreigner card when speaking Russian in Lviv and other cities around).

Have plenty of potential teachers in Warsaw, I even talked to a few students around January. Here it's also worth mentioning that occasions to learn language for free can happen, as sometimes its funded by local institusions or universities, found one advert from 2011 online and will look for newer ones.

Also, of course Ukrainian girl from Lviv who teaches Russian here in Warsaw as part of some kind of Academics has to be looking very bangable, what a not surprise - http://www.aiesecpl.home.pl/learnbyplay/...0ZAJEC.pdf

Just an update on my first month: I've been using almost exclusively http://www.russianforfree.com/ after realizing how much Busuu sucks. Busuu has exactly the same content for every single language, so for example they have a whole lesson on the verb "To be" in the present tense eventhough in Russian it is omitted so the entire lesson is quite useless. Also the vocabulary is not very relevant, it's hard to explain but basically they don't teach you the kind of stuff that gets you speaking when you are first learning (auxiliary verbs, useful expressions, etc). In addition they have no lessons on learning to read and write the alphabet.

I've done the 14 lessons of the basic Russian course of russianforfree and I feel that I'm learning very fast (I do between 1-4 hours a day). The content is relevant and they have a lot of dialogues. I also find they have the perfect balance between vocabulary and grammar. When I feel a bit bored from the lessons, I go to http://www.russianforfree.com/texts.php and I listen several times to one of the texts. I write down the whole thing and below each paragraph I note down the new words that I don't know. The texts are written so that some words appear many times and at the end you expand your vocabulary that way.

I also use this site for checking any verbs: http://masterrussian.com/verbs/conjugations.htm and this other one for writing in Russian http://translit.ru/

At night, when I'm too tired to write anything I listen to this podcast: http://russianmadeeasy.com/


I find that alternating writing/reading with listening and speaking makes me stay focused without getting bored and that way I'm able to study for several hours. I also like to do imaginary conversations that allow me to find gaps in my vocabulary, like this guy explains: (min 9:22)

Do you guys know where to find recent TV series like Game of thrones, Vikings, etc. in Russian?

Either in streaming with English subtitles or in torrent (with English subtitles available at opensubtitles.org)

Hi,

I need some help with "можно".

When I want to say someting like ".. it is possible that.." is "можно" the right word to use?

Thanks!

Quote: (06-10-2014 03:11 PM)RandomGuy1 Wrote:  

Hi,

I need some help with "можно".

When I want to say someting like ".. it is possible that.." is "можно" the right word to use?

Thanks!

Close but use "возможно"

Quote: (06-05-2014 08:35 AM)Lika Wrote:  

Do you guys know where to find recent TV series like Game of thrones, Vikings, etc. in Russian?

Either in streaming with English subtitles or in torrent (with English subtitles available at opensubtitles.org)

vk video

Quote: (06-12-2014 01:41 AM)calihunter Wrote:  

Quote: (06-05-2014 08:35 AM)Lika Wrote:  

Do you guys know where to find recent TV series like Game of thrones, Vikings, etc. in Russian?

Either in streaming with English subtitles or in torrent (with English subtitles available at opensubtitles.org)

vk video

kinogo.net has everything.

http://kinogo.net/4704-igra-prestolov-4-sezon.html
http://kinogo.net/4533-vikingi-2-sezon.html
...

Quote: (04-21-2014 05:44 PM)Luisaceo Wrote:  

I also like to do imaginary conversations that allow me to find gaps in my vocabulary, like this guy explains: (min 9:22)

Wow that guy is annoying. But his tips of imaginary conversations, finding a stickler to point out your errors and finding people where your best language to mutually communicate is the one you are learning are good if not somewhat obvious pieces of advice.

@bacan yeah, most polyglot geeks are effeminate and annoying

I need some help for texting/asking out girls in russian. How would you guys say "would you like to hang out and get a drink this week" or "let's have some coffee this week, we can go for a walk later in the park in nemiga". Is there any other particular way to ask a girl out that is more appropiate?

I've learnt how to read the Cyrillic script and have been practicing the transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin script I.e romanization of the Cyrillic characters.

Question to fluent Russian speakers: how long did you practice transliteration before you could memorize how a word sounds without spelling out its phonetics?

Quote: (08-17-2014 05:32 AM)Luisaceo Wrote:  

@bacan yeah, most polyglot geeks are effeminate and annoying

I need some help for texting/asking out girls in russian. How would you guys say "would you like to hang out and get a drink this week" or "let's have some coffee this week, we can go for a walk later in the park in nemiga". Is there any other particular way to ask a girl out that is more appropiate?

"[let's] hang out and get a drink this week"
Давай встретимся и выпьем на неделе
This does not sound right, because "a drink" translates as "to drink" and Russians don't believe on moderation.

"let's have some coffee [Thursday], there is a park nearby"
Давай сходим на кофе в четверг, там рядом парк есть.
This also sounds a little soft, but I can't think of anything more clever.


Here is an idea, try pickup advice in Russian. It's in the relevant context and you already have the necessary domain background. The only difference is the language/phrasing.

https://masterpickup.ru/kak-priglasit-de...-svidanie/

Quote:Quote:

Как пригласить девушку на свидание. Фразы и Советы.

1.«Можно пригласить тебя в ресторан?»
2.«Может сходим как-нибудь выпьем кофе?»
3.«Вот у меня есть два билета на **ее любимый фильм**, может, сходим вместе?» или «Я бы с удовольствием посмотрел этот фильм с тобой»

@One-two thanks for the link, it looks useful, I'll check it out next time I hit Belarus or Russia although hopelfuly by then I'll be somewhat fluent.

Quote: (01-20-2015 07:25 AM)Agreddor Wrote:  

I've learnt how to read the Cyrillic script and have been practicing the transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin script I.e romanization of the Cyrillic characters.

Question to fluent Russian speakers: how long did you practice transliteration before you could memorize how a word sounds without spelling out its phonetics?

I'm not fluent yet but I think it only took me a couple of months to be able to read basic texts quickly provided that the vocabulary was familiar. I've been studying Russian for around 7 months and I can now more or less read a text with a lot of unseen vocabulary without sounding like a 5 year old although I still struggle with very long words that I haven't seen before. I think it all depends on how good your vocabulary is, whenever you read a word for the first time it will obviously take longer to pronounce.